Scott Hanselman

Hi Scott,

Your book "Klog på mange maader" is danish and it means "Wise in many ways".

Cheers

Rasmus.

Nice video about your cables man!
The author of the book with your picture on it is Danish, not Dutch, we don't use the weird æ å ø characters.

Scott, that was hilarious. Awesome vid dude. I vote Jeff Atwood next for Geek Cribs :-)

Thanks Rasmus! Sorry I didn't know that.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=xboxen

Nice crib Scott :)

By the way, your book "Klog på mange måder" is Danish - it means "Smart in many ways" ;)

I love how Rory steals the security key at 7:19... haha

I will be playing this for my wife this evening to vindicate my own personal OCD tendencies.

...and the harmony 880 is a great remote, with the exception of the charging base.

This doesn't apply to this post specifically unless it caused the problem, but I got about 7 javascript errors when your main page loaded the first time this morning. I don't remember what they were but I cannot get them to happen again. The channel 10 box was blank the first time so I imagine it had something to do with that though, and now it just says get silverlight. Just thought you would want to know. :) On IE 6 with xp sp2 here.

I am glad I am not the only one who likes to see neat wires.

Really cool vid. Respect to Denmark :-)

Nice video Scott.

Scott, I hope its just the proxy server in my office but i cant get the video to play (i have most recent silverlight plugin too).

Looking forward to seeing it, and Ill check from my home office tonight.

The Ninja

Very nice crib!

Once again I am jealous as hell.

Loved the video! I'm moving into a new house soon and looking forward to geeking it out.

Not so thrilled with the Silverlight player... I finally installed it for the first time to watch this video (worth it), but as soon as I pause an resume the video, the framerate drops way down and I lose the audio :-( ...had to reload the page a couple times.

You can also download the video directly...just got to the on10 page and click "downloads" - there MP4 and WMV.

Am I the only one that has NO luck at all with Silverlight video. On the two machines I use (both Vista Ultimate), I've clicked the "Get Silverlight" badge, run the EXE, and re-started my browser. I've done this numerous times over the last several months.

I just did it again with this video (in an updated Firefox 2.x install) and no dice. Close the browser, run the install (which appears to finish fine), then re-start. Same badge. No video.

Jeff

To Jeff,

Are you using Firefox with NoScript extension? If so, then go to the NoScript's options under "Plugins" and uncheck, "Forbit Microsoft Silverlight." That should fix the issue that you're having.

- Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Nope... I'm not using the "NoScript" extension. I also saw some info via Google that the Google toolbar used in conjunction with RoboForm caused issues with Silverlight in FF, but I'm not using RoboForm.

I'm at a loss... but hoping it becomes just as easy as Flash at some point.

Jeff

Jeff -

"Am I the only one that has NO luck at all with Silverlight video. On the two machines I use (both Vista Ultimate), I've clicked the "Get Silverlight" badge, run the EXE, and re-started my browser. I've done this numerous times over the last several months."

That's interesting... I use a Mac pretty much full time now, and it all works here - even under Safari.

Not being Mr. SnottyMacPants - I just find it interesting...

I was surprised that it worked at all, but it's slick. When I interviewed Scott Guthrie last year about Silverlight and he revealed that there would be a Safari version, I was thrilled, but I didn't buy it - didn't think they'd get it to work.

I was very wrong :)

Haha - very cool guys :)

fwiw, i've found PS3 + TVersity's mediacenteresque features significantly better than xbox + MC or shares. The UI is much more responsive, it's much easier to find things (it auto folders by genre/artist/album/etc) and it just feels better. The unfortunate part and the dealbreaker for most is the fact that it has no IR, so you're pretty much stuck w/ the ps3 controller or ps3 bluetooth remote.

Thanks for the great video; it was both informative and entertaining. The three of you seem to work quite well with each other. I also enjoyed that way Rory edited it and added subtitles here and there.
Chris Sells brought up the issue of the HP Mediasmart home server being headless and how that could be a problem if you ever wanted to "repave" the server. I was worried about the same thing when I got one of those. However I discovered that the machine has a enhanced BIOS that let's you remotely reinstall Windows Home Server.

Scott,

I am getting ready to install an reciever in a similar fashion. I have been thinking about doing with the fan and I have a couple of questions. Also you got a nice setup and video.

1. What size fan did you use? Does it make much noise? How did you hook it for power?
2. Did you have to make a hole on the other side of the cabinet so cooler air could come in?

Mike - It was a 4inch 12V case fan. I used an external hard drive AC adapter and removed the DC tip, and manually tied the wires together with tape. It makes some noise (it's a cheap fan) so I'd recommend getting the best fan you can. There are quietPC sites with recommendations. I didn't make a hole on the other side as there's a hole in the top for TV wires, but that's a good idea.

Okay, now I'm thoroughly confused and have lost an hour of my life. Did you say that you are using the Xbox (360 I'm assuming) to distribute all of your video and music throughout your house, but that you do NOT have a Media Center PC?

I would love to be able to bring my content from my computer to my Xbox 360, but I don't have Media Center, and honestly have no desire to buy it.

Matt,

I use tversity and share content to my XBox 360 without a problem. You do not need to have Windows Media Center.

With this setup I can stream my mp3s display my pictures, and watch divX encoded videos (without transcoding thanks to the latest 360 update). For me my XBox is half gaming and half mutilmedia device.

Hope that helps...

Scott

Sounds like you don't use Outlook Scott. What do you use?

Outlook for work, Gmail for personal.

Scott, nice house and video. If I heard correctly on your video, do you pay a monthly fee to stream your music/video content on your 360? If so, you may want to check out PS3 and Fuppes. PS3 works great as a "fat client". In addition, you also get the high-def dvd player included. The high-def dvd was a great selling point to my wife.

Take care,

Jule

No, no fee, just the built in Windows Media Sharing software.

Scott,

Awesome house. And just so you don't feel bad i think the wiring closet was great. I plan to do something similar in my home (once i buy one) and look at this as a great example for convincing the Mrs. that its really a great idea.

I love HomeServer and Vista MC, they were definetly the answers to alot of desires I had to do things fast, simple and cheap.

Once again, clean well marked wiring is always worth the time and effort, and Zipties are a must!!!

The harmony remote will control the XBox too, using the IR port. So you don't even need to pick up the game controller to watch/listen to your media. Harmony remote WAF = HIGH!

Scott,

Great video... I have '3' questions... 1 you might not want to answer. (Really more than 3).

1. What do you mean by uPnP to get your Music/Photos on the 360? Where is that stuff stored? Is it actually stored on the Windows Home Server? (You said NO Media Center PC is involved, yes.) If not, where were those photos/music stored and can you do the same for videos (for example, I want to Rip all my DVDs and store them somewhere)?

2. You have the FiOS Actiontech router(?) and you hook one port of that the the linksys switch? Do you also use the wireless of the action tech (being in a closet and all) or do you have additional WAPs in the house? Do you have multiple drops to each room or do you have small 4 port switches in your rooms?

3. Being an MS employee, do you get free MS Points for movies and such?

Thanks,
BOb

hey scott wondering what monitors you've got running there in your triplehead setup? looking to upgrade from dual CRT 19's. trying to find a good price/perf ratio.

Bob:
1 - I use Windows Media Sharing...that's on my Windows Home Server, or an external drive connected to any Windows machine.
2 - Yes, exactly. I have just the one WAP, it's powerful enough to give me great coverage over 3500sq.ft, plus outside. I have two 1Gbps drops in every room also. No other hubs or switches anywhere in the house. 24 total drops.
3 - No, MS employees get no free points, AFAIK.

Aaron - They are all Dell 2001FPs or 2004FWPs.

Scott,

Ah... shiny... that must be a solid WAP then. Our house isn't that big but we have trouble getting the signal... but then again my WAP is downstairs at one end of the house, and my sons room is upstairs at the other end. Sounds like yours is centrally locate.

One more question... does the Coax from the Verizon ONT go into your wiring boxes amplifier then from there to the router... or does it have to come right from the ONT to the router and it is split and hooked to the amp?

BOb

Yes, it's very centrally located. Right in the middle of the house, downstairs.

The coax for me goes from the ONT directly into the Verizon splitter, then one goes off to the router and the others (TV) go into the Wiring closet splitter.

Nice to see a Bible on your shelf.